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Algeria 'loses contact with plane'

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Lucifon

Junior Member
BBC said:
Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso.

Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, the airline is quoted by Algeria's state news agency as saying.

The passenger airliner, last seen at 0155 GMT, was bound for the Algerian capital Algiers, it added.

Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew on board, officials said.

"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," Air Algerie officials, quoted by APS news agency, said.

The plane is chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair.

In a statement (in Spanish), Swiftair said that the aircraft was an MD83 and that they were unable to establish contact with the plane. The plane was originally scheduled to land at 0510 local time, it said.

Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week, AFP news agency reported..

@BBCBreaking said:
#AH5017 pilot contacted control tower in Niger's capital Niamey to change course because of a storm

Updated map from BBC:

ibrOlM6GTIBoaT.gif

Update 15:38 - UNCONFIRMED
The French forces stationed in Mali have detected the wreckage AH5017 halfway between Gao and Kidal, in a very inaccessible desert area.

Update 08:06 GMT
BBC said:
The wreckage of a plane that disappeared with 116 people on board on a flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers has been found in Mali, officials say.

"Sadly, the team saw no-one on site. It saw no survivors," he told reporters.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told French radio network RTL that "the aircraft was destroyed at the moment it crashed", meaning that it did not appear likely that the plane was attacked mid-flight.

"We think the aircraft crashed for reasons linked to the weather conditions, although no theory can be excluded at this point," he said.
 

antonz

Member
@flightradar24 · 1m
Spanish airline Swiftair was operating a MD83 as #AH5017 for of Air Algerie. Reports say that there were 110 pax + 6 crew onboard.

ugh :( I know statistically its very safe to fly but damn July has been a rough month for aviation
 
BeurFM said:
The aircraft lost by AIR Algeria, is an Airbus A320 with 112 passengers on board, including four Algerians. (Algeria 1)
Air Algeria immediately raised its emergency plan to find the #AH5017 Ouagadougou-Algiers flight.

.
 

Alienous

Member
I can't ...

hopefully it works out for the best. If not, condolences to the families involved in advance.

I'm really, really getting angry at all of this.
 

CoolOff

Member
Probably gonna disappear and in a few weeks another plane will be "shot down" over Ukraine.

/ Russia Today

Nah but seriously, this is horrible. :(
 

HUELEN10

Member
Jesus, it better not be 2 planes gone, but then how can multiple outlets be consistently different at this stage in the story?
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
So this whole 'flying is the safest way of travel' isn't particularly true for 2014, is it?

I think it's more the press coverage and the public attention that the two MH flights got that makes it look that it is worse than before. Accidents happen every year, but comparing to the number of flights and number of passengers is still the safest.
 
When has weather ever played a role in plane crashes? Maybe 1 or 2% of all the crashes..
It is often a contributing factor alongside minor malfunction, human error etc. It's normally a combination of factors and any one alone would not have been enough to down a plane.
 
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